Described herein is a fire-retardant sheet material suitable for use in upholstery applications.
Fire retardancy is an important property in upholstery applications. It is often achieved by the topical application of flame retardant chemicals directly to an outer decorative layer of upholstery material. However, the fire retardancy of these constructions has been found to be not always adequate.
GB2152542 describes a fire-retardant fabric comprising a mixture of components, in particular a three-component system comprising three components selected from aramid fiber, modacrylic fiber, fire-retardant polyester, and fire-retardant viscose.
There is need in the art for improved fire retardancy in upholstery applications. However, the improved fire retardancy should not detrimentally affect the properties of the upholstery material. More specifically, the upholstery material should remain soft and flexible. Further, the weight of the material should not be increased to a too large extent. The present disclosure solves this problem.
The present disclosure pertains to a sheet material which is a non-woven having an areal weight of 10-70 g/m2, which comprises 30-70 wt. % of aramid pulp, 30-70 wt. % of a fire-retardant short fiber material selected from para-aramid, glass fibers, carbon fibers, and PEEK (polyether etherketone), and 0.5-15 wt. % of a polymer binder.
It has been found that the sheet material according to embodiments of the disclosure is soft, pliable, and light weight. It can therefore be applied as backing onto upholstery material without detrimentally affecting the properties thereof. At the same time, the sheet material according to the disclosure has very good fire-retardant properties.
WO93/23620 describes a process for preparing strong aromatic polyamide papers of high porosity by heat treatment of calendered sheets of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) short fibers and poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) fibrids. Fire retardancy is not mentioned, and neither is the sheet material with the composition according to the disclosure.
WO2005103376 describes an aramid paper which is suitable for composite structures, and which is made using a combination of para-aramid pulp, floc, and optionally a polymer binder material. Fire retardancy is not mentioned, and neither is the sheet material with the composition according to the disclosure.